about erin

Erin is a ceramicist and freelance writer who lives in Southern California with her husband and three boys.

She’s written for The Washington Post, mom.me, parent.co and NPR, where she worked full-time before she became a mom. At NPR, she co-created The Baby Project, wrote essays on getting pregnant and her childhood diaries and edited Fresh Air for the web.

A fellow blogger nominated me for a Liebster Award and in return I nominate other bloggers I’ve discovered and like following and I included your blog. I found your blog on a random Google search for ‘Traveling to Iceland with a newborn’ plus I’m an avid NPR listener which was a plus when I discovered your blog 🙂

I was born in Ridgecrest in 1977. My father was a civil service engineer at China Lake, and my mother was an artist. As a young boy I would spend countless hours wandering the desert looking for the biggest Iguana’s I could find, while avoiding the many rattlesnakes hiding in the creosote bushes.

We would camp frequently at Wagonwheel. We would take weekend trips to Lake Isabella. There was another place we would go where we could climb the aqueducts and find frogs and tadpoles in the mountain valley springs and streams. My father, brother and I rode motocross. Wherever we camped we brought bikes with us. We would ski at Mammoth in the winter. My grandparents lived in Chula Vista and National City, so we would make that drive pretty regularly. I think it was only about 4.5 hours, but at my age that was an eternity.

It truly was a special place to be as a young boy.

I haven’t been back since, but reading your blog makes me want to take my wife and son to visit, camp, and explore. To show them the beauty of the desert, and the peaceful, quiet solitude that is lost in our urban city life.

Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you for posting your stories about desert living, and I look forward to reading more!

Thanks Nathan! What a wonderful comment. Yeah, we do love so many things about living here, though it won’t be forever. A. goes rock climbing at Wagon Wheel and we plan to spend this evening there for our anniversary, looking at the stars. So glad I was able to help you reconnect with your childhood — I’m sure your wife and son would love to share it with you.